The blocked resources in question? Automatic security and features updates and plugin/theme repository access. Matt Mullenweg reasserted his claim that this was a trademark issue. In tandem, WordPress.org updated its Trademark Policy page to forbid WP Engine specifically (way after the Cease & Desist): from “you are free to use [‘WP’] n any way you see fit” to a diatribe:

The abbreviation “WP” is not covered by the WordPress trademarks, but please don’t use it in a way that confuses people. For example, many people think WP Engine is “WordPress Engine” and officially associated with WordPress, which it’s not. They have never once even donated to the WordPress Foundation, despite making billions of revenue on top of WordPress.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/26/wordpress-vs-wp-engine-drama-explained attempts to provide a full chronology so far.

Edit:

The WordPress Foundation, which owns the trademark, has also filed to trademark “Managed WordPress” and “Hosted WordPress.” Developers and providers are worried that if these trademarks are granted, they could be used against them.

  • @[email protected]
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    803 months ago

    Would it be wrong to hope they manage to commit some gross act of mutual destruction, and that the outcome would be that I never have to deal with Wordpress ever again?

    • @[email protected]
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      283 months ago

      That would be great but the reality is that client’s mindsets need to change. I tried to explain to a client that Wordpress is not a good fit for their complex web application and yet they didn’t wanna switch to anything else. People are way too worried about new tech and wanna stick with whatever they know, even if it causes massive problems.

      • @[email protected]
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        343 months ago

        Wordpress is not a good fit for their complex web application

        Seriously. People want to shove everything into Wordpress then get cranky when you can’t make Wordpress into a ecommerce store, marketing platform, personal blog, file sharing service, and NFT marketplace.

        And then it gets hacked because they needed 14 SEO plugins, 2 different form plugins, and were not going to pay for managed updates because that’s easy they can do it themselves.

        • kingthrillgore
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          3 months ago

          If you’re trying to turn WordPress into an application, for christs sake go use Django, Laravel, or Rails. Don’t send a CMS to do an applications’ job.

          Shit you don’t even need a CMS at this point. I moved off WordPress to Hugo and SFTP and i’m happier than a pig in shit. Shit loads fast and no external threats.

      • SouthFresh
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        303 months ago

        Wordpress is the Excel of CMSs. It can do just about anything, but at this point it barely manages content well.

        • Echo Dot
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          103 months ago

          That’s a great analogy actually. You can do almost anything with it but what the vast majority of people choose to do with it is wrong.

          Just like how people insist on using Excel as a database or Excel as a form.

      • @saltesc
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        3 months ago

        I haven’t done web work for well over a decade and recently was surprised to learn that Wordpress is still very relevant. I remember back then, seeking alternatives as we expected it to become more of a legacy thing a few years down the track, so we were on the lookout for future-proofing client sites with a better foundation. At that point it was a decade old and annoying af because it morphed into a messy way of doing websites because people misused it’s original purpose. Brain had to think like a blog and then trick it into doing what you want, kind of like using tables to structure pages before CSS-P saved the day.

      • @ignism
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        33 months ago

        This year I stopped to let my clients pick the CMS. I tell them you wouldn’t ask a carpenter to make a chair, but restrict them to only use metal.

      • Echo Dot
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        3 months ago

        Wordpress is not a good fit for virtually any modern application. It’s designed as a blogging platform and basically no one makes blogs anymore. That functionality kind of got eaten up by Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn, so no one needs blogs.

        Instead of letting WordPress die the death it most definitely deserves they shoehorned in functionality, which would be fine if it wasn’t such a bodge job.

      • @[email protected]
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        33 months ago

        I’ve been pushing Squarespace for most people who come to me asking about setting up a small store or just simple business website.

        Yeah, it’s closed source and blah blah blah, but the end of the day, it’s not about my opinions on software, it’s about the most cost-effective, simple, usable option for the client who is asking me for my expertise, which is almost always not something they’re going to have to keep paying me to maintain.

        Like if you really really want Wordpress, I’ll get you set up, and then quote you a couple thousand a year for maintenance.

        Unshockprisingly, very few people think that’s the right choice once they see what the keep-it-from-being-exploited cost is.

        (And for anyone who thinks that’s an unreasonable amount, okay cool. But maintaining a staging environment and testing updates and then pushing everything into production assuming there’s no regressions you have to address takes a lot of time.)

        • @[email protected]
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          33 months ago

          Everytime checked someone else’s WP, the only thing that came to mind each time was a Jenga block tower. Bunch of themes and plugins that do god knows what and interact together in mysterious way. Touch anything and there’s a very good chance everything comes crashing down.

          I personally send people to Wix, but I guess Squarespace is fine.

          • @[email protected]
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            43 months ago

            It’s that Simpsons episode where Mr. Burns is only alive because all the things that would kill him are cancelling each other out, but in PHP form.

            I tend to use Squarespace because uh, they have a marketing budget and everyone tends to already know (or at least one of the people in the meeting anyways) who they are, which makes things an easier sell.

            I don’t particularly think they’re the best or whatever, but they at least do what they say at a price that’s reasonable enough and I’ve yet to be burned by suggesting them, sooooo…

      • Echo Dot
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        33 months ago

        Wix and Squarespace managed to be even worse options anyway.

        Anyway who cares what the client thinks, they don’t know anything that’s why they’re hiring a professional. The professional thing to do would be to convince them of the advantages of one of the listed options.

        Anytime I’ve ever had to deal with WordPress I’ve always run up against the fact that it has limitations that the client doesn’t understand, and then at some point you end up redesigning it custom anyway. May as well save time and start out custom.

      • @daddy32
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        23 months ago

        Drupal? About as old as WP ;)

      • @btaf45
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        03 months ago

        Genuine question: what is the real alternative to WP?

        What’s wrong with html/css/js? It can do anything you want it to do.

        • @[email protected]
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          93 months ago

          It doesn’t allow Dick from marketing to update the content without having to learn a skill.

          Even though wordpress is an unsecure piece of shit, it’s very good at doing a just good enough shitty job quickly and cheaply (most of the time by adding a metric crap ton of even shittier plugins). Hence it’s massive popularity.

    • @jqubed
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      53 months ago

      I have off-and-on searched for alternative software for personal blogs that can be self-hosted and it doesn’t seem like there are many options anymore. The only ones I’ve seen are WriteFreely and FlatPress. Are there any other options you’re aware of?

      • @[email protected]
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        53 months ago

        Depends on if you need a CMS, or if you can use a static site generator.

        For a CMS, I’m still a fan of Ghost and it has (mostly) not enshittified to the point it’s unpleasant to use.

        If you don’t need the whole CMS thing, there’s an awful lot of options. (And hosting them is super simplified since you can just stuff the output into a S3 bucket/Cloudflare Pages/Github Pages/a dozen other providers for basically free.)

      • AatubeOP
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        33 months ago

        There’s Contao, Drupal, Blogger, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace…

          • AatubeOP
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            33 months ago

            That’s fair. Interesting how blanket advertising often means the opposite of better.

        • Echo Dot
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          43 months ago

          Shopify seems like it was purposely designed to be as dreadful as possible. They seemed to go out of their way to make dumb decisions.

          • @[email protected]
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            23 months ago

            It moved to symfony starting with contao 4. You can now either use it as a self-managed CMS or add it to an existing symfony application to add CMS functionality. Great stuff.

            Most of the community is German speaking though, keep that in mind.

    • nocturne
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      43 months ago

      Any suggestions for a free easy to use alternative to wp?

        • nocturne
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          103 months ago

          Wix was not free when I looked last, I cannot stand using websites that use Shopify.

          I will look into some of those others.

      • @[email protected]
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        23 months ago

        There really isn’t one that’s a true alternative to WP.

        There are plenty of nice static site generators, but those are significantly harder to use and not just drag and drop, they also don’t have the huge plugin marketplace that WP does.

        Everyone loves to complain about WP (rightfully so in some cases, it has its own problems), but will suggest alternatives that are nothing like it.

        • nocturne
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          23 months ago

          I use WP to post weekly (sometimes more frequently) updates about my new releases and events happening in my shop (a game shop). It works for what I need, I just wish I could find I build a theme that displayed the way I want it to display.

          • AatubeOP
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            13 months ago

            Good luck! Not sure if you have time, but to their credit, they do have a handbook on making themes. Since WordPress 5.0 block editor, which a lot of people apparently abhor, themes are mostly HTML templates (with a lot of WP-specific invis comments) and CSS styles.

            • nocturne
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              23 months ago

              Thanks. I really know nothing about that kind of stuff. I have tried and only make things worse.

              • AatubeOP
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                13 months ago

                After December 2018, which is when WordPress 5.0 released?

                • nocturne
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                  23 months ago

                  No idea. I only started to use it in 22 I think. I have seen a lot of themes that look great, but every one of my posts has an image attached and the theme I use will not display a thumbnail when on the main page, only the title of the post and a snippet of the text.

      • @Lost_My_Mind
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        -173 months ago

        I have one that you may not like, but fits your description.

        I don’t know what wordpress is, so I would suggest just not bothering at all with whatever that is. Maybe use wordpad.